Discobolus

myminifactory

There are descriptions from antiquity of the sculpture of the discus thrower, but it took a long time for archaeologists to reconstruct the originals from loose parts from various ancient copies. For example, the head was tried to be placed in several ways, as you can see in the two versions that are in the Cast Collection. The strange horns on the figure's forehead are the remains of a device that was supposed to support a victory wreath. The discus thrower has been the subject of much admiration for the depiction of a body in motion and yet in perfect balance under a strict idiom. Thanks to copies of the figure, Adolf Hitler's filmmaker Leni Riefensthal was able to have nude athletes assume the figure's pose in her 1936 Berlin Olympics film, and Hitler acquired the best-preserved antique version from Mussolini in 1938. In 1790 another copy of the Discobolus was excavated from Hadrian's Villa. This was soon purchased by the English art dealer Thomas Jenkins and ended up in the hands of the English connoisseur Charles Townley; the head was wrongly restored, but Townley was convinced his was the original and better copy. This copy, now called the Townley Discobolus, can be downloaded here. Source: Henrik Holm, CATALOGUETEXT